The company emphasizes that the program requires no up-front costs, although it is still a method whereby artists or labels pay for better placement, with hit-or-miss results.Ĭontacted by Variety, a Spotify spokesperson said: “Artist and label teams have told Spotify for years that they want more agency in reaching new listeners and driving meaningful connections on our platform – Discovery Mode, in its early phase, delivers just that.

To be fair, the program is essentially no different from traditional brick-and-mortar promotional campaigns whereby record companies pay retailers for premium store-display placement for their CDs and vinyl and unlike those programs, Spotify is at least upfront about the advance-royalty-payment aspect of Discovery Mode. (D-GA) wrote to Ek requesting more information on the policy, voicing concerns that it “may set in motion a ‘race to the bottom’ in which artists and labels feel compelled to accept lower royalties as a necessary way to break through an extremely crowded and competitive music environment.” Jerry Nadler (D-NY) and Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet Chairman Rep. Last July, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. “Without this transparency, you are asking artists to make a blind choice, and it represents a classic prisoner’s dilemma.” “We would ask that Spotify publish, on a monthly basis, the name of every track enrolled in the program and the royalty discount agreed upon,” the letter continues.

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